Responses due: May 31, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. ET
Announcement
The Land of Sky P20 Council is soliciting proposals from firms, joint ventures, and/or partnerships acting individually or as teams to assist the Council with a Regional Plan for Sustainable Infrastructure. The Council was awarded a grant from the John M Belk Endowment to carry out the activities described in this scope of work. The consultant will work closely with Council staff, members of the Council, and other stakeholders / partners to carry out the activities detailed below.
The P20 Council is seeking the assistance of a consultant or team of consultants, preferably with local knowledge/experience and/or located within or in close proximity to our region, on a variety of tasks in this project. A budget of approximately $25,000 will be made available for consultant assistance with these tasks and deliverables.
Introduction
The P20 Council is a four-county education and workforce collaborative serving Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, and Transylvania. Since its inception in late 2021, the Council has grown in staff (currently 2 full-time, 1 part-time) and Council members (now 28). While the Council continues to experience growth in capacity, this is due to an infrastructure built upon grant sources. If the Council is to continue serving as a regional intermediary from early education to postsecondary education, it needs to operate under more sustainable funding purviews and as such, with an infrastructure that is built for long-term success.
Scope of Work
Project objective:
- How can we position P20 for long-term operational, financial and programmatic success for the next five years and beyond?
Goals:
Through the course of the project, existing plans and strategies will be woven together with internal and external stakeholder input into this plan that will guide the P20 Council going forward. The consultant will work with the full P20 member network and staff as needed to conduct the project. The goals of the project include:
- Researching and compiling information on collaborative structures similar to P20 across NC and the United States and evaluating the advantages of their operational frameworks for their potential replicability for P20’s purposes;
- Gathering stakeholder input on P20’s value proposition to their individual institution and their regional partnerships in and out of the P20 network;
- Evaluating the strengths, gaps, and opportunities of P20’s existing infrastructure, to include its governance system, funding framework, Council member and staff capacities, and programmatic efforts;
- Developing an ongoing structure and funding strategy to carry the Council forward;
- Identifying state and federal priorities and funding sources for regional sustainability of the Council;
- Determining feasible options for proposing sustainability plan to key stakeholders for the purpose of their consideration and buy-in; and
- Ensuring that the plan is a living document, designed to be a flexible tool that will be modified as the opportunities and needs of the region change over time.
Schedule/Milestones
Corresponding to numbering in Goals section above
- Produce list of collaborative structures and their funding framework; highlight components of the structures which have the most potential for replicability for P20
- Compile stakeholder input on P20’s value proposition
- Outline the strengths, gaps, and opportunities of P20’s existing infrastructure
- Produce a summary of P20’s current structure vs. its potential structure for the greatest long-term success
- List state and federal priorities and funding sources
- Develop a proposal that P20 can pitch to key stakeholders
- Summarize how the plan can be updated for the future and questions the staff and members should consider in the long-term
Deliverables & Expected Outcomes
- Draft sustainability plan, basic contents of which will include (but are not limited to):
- Vision
- Summary of stakeholder engagement process to include:
- Internal P20 Council Members
- External partners not on the P20 Council
- P20 Council Staff
- Analysis/findings from each goal listed above
- Synthesis of all of the above
- Implementation strategy
Submission Requirements
Proposals must be limited to 2 pages and provided in digital format. At minimum, proposals should include the following:
- Primary contact name, address, phone number, and email;
- Names, roles, and background of key members of the consultant team. A statement of project understanding and approach;
- Demonstration of experience on similar projects that includes no more than three (3) examples of similar projects, with references for each;
- An estimated budget based on the scope of services and proposed approach, including the time and budget allocated to each consultant and sub-consultant by task; and
- Any other information deemed necessary to demonstrate your expertise and capabilities.
Qualifications Sought
- Demonstrated experience in assisting clients within the educational and/or workforce fields;
- Demonstrated ability to communicate a clearly understandable narrative from a large volume of complex data without the use of typical generic consulting language;
- Demonstrated use of contemporary communications tools (e.g., the internet, web sites, blogs, social media, and collaborative document generation tools);
- Demonstrated experience in projects that foster and support regional collaboration; and
- Demonstrated experience with creative and non-traditional approaches to complex planning efforts.
Schedule
The process for selecting a consultant team is as follows:
- RFP released: April 19, 2024
- RFP responses due: May 31, 2024 at 5:00 pm ET
- Consultant(s) selected: approximately June 11, 2024
- Contract start date: approximately July 1, 2024
- Contract end date: approximately October 31, 2024
Answers to questions or additional information may be obtained by contacting:
Emily Nicholson
Executive Director
Land of Sky P20 Council
339 New Leicester Highway, Suite 140
Asheville, NC 28806
(252) 916-2678
emilyn@landofsky.org
